Sunday, June 17, 2012

Sunday Worship: Flick It Four Times, Murray

Welcome back my faithful, for I have returned to bring you another sermon from the Matt-Cave. This Sunday we've enjoyed the Sega Genesis game Flicky, Bull Murray's Stripes (on VHS of course) and a few chapters from the Essential Fantastic Four vol. 3 collection. Let us prey.

(1991)

Funny side-note about Flicky. It was designed by the same team behind Sonic the Hedgehog. Some of the animals you save in the original Sonic are modeled from the animals in Flicky.

Flicky is super-addictive. Its stupid as hell and the graphics certainly don't do the Sega Genesis justice (it was developed in 1984 in Japan as an arcade game, but got its US release in 1991). It's a game kind of like Tetris or Columns. There's a certain strategy to it, and once you're in the groove you can go far. Take a look at the clip below for an example of this vintage game:

I don't actually have this game on the Genesis. I've got it on a retro-Genesis controller (complete with 18 classic Genesis games) that plugs right into the TV. It was released by At Games (the same people who released that retro-Atari system full of games a couple years ago). You can probably find it at places like Walgreens or CVS for $25. Well worth it!

(1981)

Stripes is a classic Bill Murray movie. It's not one of my favorites, but it's definitely full of laughs. I was lucky enough to snag this on VHS for a grand total of 54 cents last weekend. Money well spent!

Stripes is about a couple of slackers joining the Army, where shenanigans ensue. Here's one of my favorite clips from the movie, right before Murray gets the urge to join up:

One of the best revenge scenes ever!

If I had to deal with people like this on a daily basis, I'd probably join the Army too.

Here's another good clip. This is probably one of the best YOLO speeches you'll ever hear. This scene is very reminiscent of the Bill Murray film Where The Buffalo Roam, which was an exaggerated take on the life of Hunter S. Thompson. There's a lot of moments in Murray's speech here that sound like they could have easily come from the warped mind of Thompson. If you've never seen the movie you'll miss it. 'Tis a shame if that's the case...

If Bill Murray was my drill sergeant, I'd totally be a career-military man!

Featuring such classic stories as the arrival of the Silver Silver, Galactus, the Inhumans and more.

This is a pretty cool collection of early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four stories. Right now I'm at the first appearance of the Inhumans. So far I've been introduced to Medusa, Crystal, Gorgon, Triton and Black Bolt (who seriously has the worst 'real' name ever, Blackagar Boltagon). This was an interesting time in the F4 folklore. Reed Richards and Sue Storm had just been married and adjusting to married life (Reed is known for extremely misogynistic comments during this time). Johnny was head over heels in love with Crystal, and the Thing was constantly putting himself down for being a freak.

I'm enjoying a lot of these early Marvel stories lately. There was certainly a hint of magic when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby worked together. You can sense it in all of those early Marvel books that this Dynamic Duo produced. The real-world issues that seemed to bleed into the comics are fun to read about, even if the storytelling devices are a tad dated.

Well my faithful, that brings us to the end of this week's sermon. Perhaps Vinyl Friday! will return this week, we'll see.